Strange Anamorphic Results Megui not handbrake

[leftspeaker2000]

Hey I did a forum search but could not find a resolution to my problem, I hope this is the right place to post and that some one can help.

I have just recently converted to Megui form handbrake is to simplistic although i do not understand most of the options in Megui.

I am trying to rip some dvds for my mother of an old English comedy dads army, but cannot seem to get the output to resemble the input when using anamorphic encoding in MeGui

The source is detected as 4:3(ITU 4:3 PAL (1.367521) which is correct the source is 4:3, i then precede to do an auto crop which is as follows (12, 2, -12, -2), the next step its to turn on anamorphic mod 16 which drops the width to 704. This i do not understand as 720 - 24 is not 704. I am also not able to up the resolution past 704 either.

I encode the video and the resolution comes out as 704 x 576 which bigger and i have mange to get it small then the source material albeit marginal but i want it as true as possible. I have used anamorphic on MeGUI with no problems on 4:3 material.

I ran the same file though handbrake with the same cropping and it set to strict anamorphic, it reports the DAR to be 747 x 574 and when previewed it looks perfect.

I really am not sure what i am doing wrong Handbrake seems to have more control on anamorphic at least that does not require a scrip which i am not 100% sure how to do.

i have included a sample of what i am working on if some one could take a look. http://www.mediafire.com/?945p0saja7lxc7v

[hello_hello]

I haven't looked at the sample but from your description you've just got to pick a different anamorphic option in MeGUI. There's a drop down box with different options next to the check box for enabling anamorphic encoding (Assuming you're using the AVS script creator. If you're using the one click encoder I don't know anything about it).

By default it's set to "Resize to Mod 16" which I assume is the option you're using. It doesn't alter the "picture" aspect ratio (well there is a setting in MeGUI's options which I mention later in the post), but it effectively resizes the video to mod16 dimensions by changing the pixel aspect ratio. Use it if for some reason you require mod16 dimensions and don't want to change the cropping to achieve it, or if you want to resize the video and still encode anamorphically. It'll basically only resize down however, although depending on cropping it'll resize up to the nearest mod16 width (you can simply change the dimensions in the script tab if need be though).

The rest of the options are all "strict anamorphic" although which one equates to Handbrake's strict anamorphic I'm not sure.

-Overcrop and undercrop to achieve mod16 do just that, they'll automatically adjust the cropping to give you mod16 dimensions without resizing the video.
-Crop mod4 horizontally undercrops horizontally to achieve a mod4 width. The height can be mod2.
-Encode non-mod16. That's probably the option you want. It'll encode without altering the cropping and without resizing.

A couple of other things which may effect the output:
I don't know whether Handbrake uses ITU resizing by default as MeGUI does (I wish you could tell it not to). Unless I'm sure a DVD is ITU I always change the input to straight 4:3 or 16:9 resizing, but whichever method you use, one will give you a slightly different aspect ratio to the other.

In MeGUI's settings there's an option to set the "acceptable aspect error" which is 2% by default. It only applies to "resize to mod16" anamorphic encoding. I guess the idea is it allows you to achieve exact 4:3 or 16:9 display aspect ratios more easily, even if it fudges the picture aspect ratio a little. I generally change it to 0%.

When using anamorphic encoding you can see what the final aspect ratio will be by switching to the AVS Script Creator's "Script" tab. Most of the time there's probably no need to care, just pick your anamorphic method, crop and encode. MeGUI will calculate the correct aspect ratio and if the "acceptable aspect error" option is set to 0% none of the anamorphic encoding methods should fudge the picture aspect ratio at all.

When encoding 4:3 DVDs in the past I've used the "resize to mod16" method because each episode has required different cropping. That way I can keep all the encodes at the same dimensions and by checking the DAR in the script tab I can crop them to exactly 4:3 as well. That's just me though, you may prefer strict anamorphic or be able to crop each episode by the same amount etc.

[Zathor]

I don't know whether Handbrake uses ITU resizing by default as MeGUI does (I wish you could tell it not to).
If you want you can disable ITU by disabling "Options\Settings\Use ITU Aspect Ratio". It is available since a few builds. ITU values are used for 720x576/720x480 sources only.

[hello_hello]

If you want you can disable ITU by disabling "Options\Settings\Use ITU Aspect Ratio". It is available since a few builds. ITU values are used for 720x576/720x480 sources only.

Awesome!! Thank you. No more forgetting to change the resize method!